Solopress has installed its second Hunkeler Gen 8 reel to cut finishing line to handle work from its HP PageWide T250HD inkjet press.
The first Hunkeler was installed at the same time the continuous feed press was commissioned at the Solopress factory in Southend last year. Now a second line will cope with growing demand as the online printer prepares for the peak season run up to the end of the year.
It means that the printer can concentrate one line on A4 products while the other will be set up for A5, says managing director Simon Cooper. It has also added a Hunkeler extraction system which, Cooper says, has made the line run faster and more smoothly.
And he adds: “The second line gives us more security than before.”
The lines are capable of slitting and cutting at 180m/min, delivering a staple diet of flyers, folded leaflets and letterheads printed on the company’s PageWide T250. This was the first of the HD generation machines with high pigment Brilliant Inks, capable of delivering offset quality printing.
And now the printer is looking to further opportunities with the press and finishing set up. Head of operations at Solopress Jack Clifford says: “The Hunkelers have done a tremendous job increasing our speed and capacity with our existing core products, but one area where we see new opportunities is in publishing. Our processes have also become more efficient, with fewer touchpoints thanks to the reduced need for manual handling of individual jobs.”
The Hunkeler will be able to deliver collated pages from digital printing, which when cut and stacked can become saddle stitched or perfect bound short run products with minimal touchpoints.
